


Lost Boy's (Girl's) Life

by RoseByAnyOtherName17



Series: The Lion, the Wolf and the Dragon [11]
Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Cold, Concern, Confessions, F/M, Platonic Cuddling, Pre-Slash, Talking, Travel, Winter, planning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-02
Updated: 2017-10-02
Packaged: 2019-01-08 00:45:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,945
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12243837
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RoseByAnyOtherName17/pseuds/RoseByAnyOtherName17
Summary: No one but Tormund and Lyanna Mormont knew the truth of where they were going; for all that Riverrun knew, Arya and Gendry were seeking out the Brotherhood Without Banners.





	Lost Boy's (Girl's) Life

**Author's Note:**

> Hope y'all enjoy
> 
> title from the song Lost Boy's Life by Darren Criss

 The wolves slowly melted into the forest, one by one by one, in the weeks following the invasion.

 

Arya could sense Nymeria’s stress, torn between the pack she had created and the connection she shared with the girl. She dreamed that she was pacing outside the walls of Riverrun every night, and each morning, she felt the pain of another wolf giving up its vigil, its loyalty to Nymeria. But Arya could not tell the direwolf to go again; it had almost broken her heart the first time. And every morning, Nymeria reentered the gate and returned to Arya’s side.

 

When the wolf pack that had once been Nymeria’s had disappeared completely, Nymeria remained, and did not leave Arya’s side again.

 

“You won’t get into the Twins with her next to you,” Gendry warned her the night before they departed Riverrun. “It would be better for her to stay here.”

 

“Nymeria is going to do what she wants,” Arya said. “But she won’t be a problem at the Twins.”

 

Gendry’s brow furrowed. “How exactly do you intend to get in?”

 

Arya took a deep breath. “I’m going to tell you how. But not now.”

 

“This is going to be one of your ideas that I don’t like, isn’t it.” Arya didn’t meet his eyes, and he sighed.

 

Only Tormund and Lady Mormont knew the truth of where they were going; the rest of Riverrun was under the impression that Arya and Gendry, having travelled with them years before, were going to find the Brotherhood Without Banners and convince them to join Daenerys Targaryen’s cause. As always, there were rumours of them in the Riverlands, and Gendry claimed to know where they were hiding out. “They won’t like it if we show up in force,” Gendry said, when asked why they were going alone. “They know us; they’ll listen to me and Lady Arya.”

 

“I leave Lady Lyanna and Tormund in charge,” Arya announced. “If there is any sign of trouble, you will defer to them. Continue to hold the castle; should word come from Jon Snow or Daenerys Targaryen, I expect to be told as soon as I return.”

 

Edmure Tully followed her to her room that night. “I must advise against this, Arya. It’s too dangerous.”

 

_You don’t have any idea how dangerous it is._ “We need allies,” Arya said, “and the Brotherhood is excellent at what they do. They care about the smallfolk. Even if that’s all they do in this war, is protect them, that’s better than not having their loyalty at all.” Edmure looked worried, and Arya wondered why. “They tried to help me once, even if it was for gold. They will help me again.”

 

“Do you have gold to give them?”

 

Arya dismissed the question. “Goodnight, Lord Edmure.”

 

He put a hand on her shoulder, stopping her. Her hand dropped to the hilt at her hip, but he only looked at her steadily. “You are more like your mother than I ever would have thought after you took the castle the way you did. I can see her in you.”

 

“I’m nothing like my mother.” _Mother was good._

 

Edmure didn’t look convinced, but he didn’t press the issue. “What would you have me do in your absence?”

 

Arya was surprised, but didn’t hesitate. “Reach out to surrounding villages. Get an idea of how prepared they are for the winter. Take stock of how prepared Riverrun is prepared for the winter, and offer help should they need it. Care for your people, high and lowborn alike. It’s a quality that Daenerys admires in a person, and she may be more inclined to allow you to keep your home and be reinstated as Warden of the Riverlands.”

 

“And what must I do to gain _your_ trust?”

 

Arya didn’t know what to say.

 

**

 

They left quietly as dawn was breaking.

 

Arya rode a grey-and-white speckled horse called Pepper. She thought the name was silly, but she was one of two horses that never shied away when Arya entered the stables with Nymeria, so she was an obvious pick. Gendry rode the other, a chestnut-colored mare named May.

 

They rode in silence for hours, until she could bear it no longer and asked Gendry why he left the Brotherhood. “You were safe with them.”

 

“I wasn’t.” Gendry glared at the back of his horse’s head so hard that the mare shied a little, kicking up her pace until Gendry calmed down enough to get her back under control. “I wanted to keep looking for you after the Red Wedding. A man who sold wine to the Freys for the wedding said that they had recognized the Hound with a little boy. I knew it had to be you, but Beric and Thoros and all the rest insisted you were dead, and if you weren’t then you would be soon if you were with the Hound.”

 

“The Hound never hurt me,” Arya said. “He protected me for as long as he could.” She didn’t know why she needed Gendry to know that, but suddenly she did. “That doesn’t explain why you left them.”

 

“I wanted to keep looking for you,” Gendry said. “And I did, everywhere we went. We would hear about the Hound from time to time, and Beric figured he must be going to the Vale. I think maybe he believed me then, that the Hound had you, because he told me that you had an aunt there. That’s when I left them, to go to the Vale and find you, except I was captured by a red woman who believed in the Lord of Light like Thoros did. She said I was important, that I had king’s blood in me, or something. She was going to take me to Stannis Baratheon at Dragonstone. I went along with it for awhile, because we were going to go through the Vale to get there.”

 

“That doesn’t make any sense,” Arya pointed out. “It would be much easier to go through the Crownlands.”

 

“She said it wasn’t safe for me. She knew about the gold cloaks, how they wanted to kill me when I first left.”

 

Arya stared at the trees ahead of them, still white with frost that the sun hadn’t burned away, even though it was high above them now. “The gold cloaks were killing Robert Baratheon’s bastard children,” she said absently. “The Hound told me that, after the rumours about Cersei and her brother began. Joffrey had them murdered, every one he could get his hands on. The whores in King’s Landing were stupid enough to brag that their babies were the king’s, and they lost them for it. Even if they didn’t, there were children who resembled Robert. They died too.”

 

Her most vivid memory of Robert Baratheon was of him sentencing Lady to die. Arya had been furious with Sansa for lying about Mycah, but as much as she wanted to hurt her sister, she never wanted Sansa to lose Lady. Lady _was_ good, but Arya sent Nymeria away, and for that she died. The king had looked weary that night, resigned and irritated with the whole ordeal. She had hated him then.

 

But his eyes…even in exhaustion, they blazed blue.

 

Like Gendry’s.

 

“You could be Robert’s son,” she said, looking over at him. “You resemble him more than Joffrey or Tommen ever did.”

 

“I thought about it too,” Gendry admitted. “I didn’t know why else the red woman would want to take me to Stannis so much.” He looked away, unsettled.

 

“What happened?”

 

“I escaped.” Gendry sat ramrod straight in the saddle, looking straight ahead with far too much focus. “I heard that Lysa Arryn died, and figured that the Hound wouldn’t take you there anymore. After that, I just wandered for awhile. There was word that Stannis Baratheon died in a battle against the Bolton’s at Winterfell, that Myrcella Baratheon was killed by the Dornish, that Cersei blew up the Sept of Baelor and became queen of Westeros. I came upon the inn that we left Hot Pie at, back when the Brotherhood first took us. He told me that the Dragon Queen had landed at Dragonstone. He told me he met a woman who was looking for you. I went looking for her, but never had any luck, so I went looking for the Brotherhood again. That’s when I heard that you had taken Riverrun from the Freys with an army of Wildlings and wolves, and it was just unbelievable enough that I decided to go and see for myself.” He relaxed gradually as his words drifted further away from the red woman. Arya knew that there was more there, but she didn’t push him. He would tell her, someday, like he’d promised.

 

“How did Hot Pie look?”

 

Gendry smiled. “He’s a bit bigger than when we last saw him.”

 

They fell silent again, until Arya gathered up her courage and spoke. “The woman found me,” she said quietly. “Her name is Brienne of Tarth. She’s at Winterfell with my sister now. She swore a vow to our mother that she would take care of us.”

 

“Why didn’t you go with her?”

 

“I…” Arya felt a new wave of guilt. “The Hound…after we left the Eyrie, he didn’t abandon me. He didn’t get any gold for me, but he didn’t decide that I was worthless and leave me to die. We stuck together until Brienne found us. They fought, and while they were fighting I ran away. For all I know, the Hound is dead.”

 

Gendry frowned. “You hated him. You wanted him dead.”

 

“He helped me get Needle back,” Arya said. “He took care of me.”

 

She felt his eyes on her, but he only asked, “Where did you run to?”

 

“I wanted to find a ship that would take me to the Wall,” she answered, shaking the Hound from her mind. “If I made it to the Wall, I could get to Castle Black, to Jon. The ship took me to Braavos instead, and I trained with the Faceless Men.” She told him about killing Meryn Trant, about being blinded, about the Waif and the kindly man. “I couldn’t become one of them like they wanted. The Waif tried to kill me, but I escaped and went to Meereen. I swore fealty to Daenerys, went home to Winterfell, brought back Jon to meet her, and was sent here to take Riverrun.”

 

There were things she wasn’t telling him, just as there were things that he wasn’t telling her, but she felt lighter all the same. She could tell Gendry did too by the way he smiled at her, blue eyes warm.

 

**

 

They made good time, travelling quickly and stopping only when dusk fell and they couldn’t see anything in front of them. The first night, Gendry tried to sleep on the other side of the fire, but Arya huffed at him and said, “Don’t be stupid, you’ll freeze.” She tugged him bodily over to herself and Nymeria, making him lie down on the other side of the direwolf. “She doesn’t mind,” she insisted when he hesitated. Nymeria rested her head on his chest for a few minutes as if to prove Arya’s point, huffing irritably at Gendry when he tried to shift into a different position. Arya curled up against her too, and in time they fell asleep, even Gendry, once he convinced Nymeria to move her enormous head long enough for him to turn onto his stomach. She promptly dropped it onto his back the moment he stilled.

 

They were two days from the Twins when Gendry asked Arya what her plan was.

 

She stopped her horse, getting down and circling to the saddle bag. “Arya?” She saw Gendry dismount from the corner of her eye, but she was focused on keeping her hands steady. This was the thing she had been dreading telling Gendry the most. He knew she wanted revenge, knew that she had killed and had even enjoyed it, but this…this she feared he would not understand.

 

“What is that?”

 

“Do you know how the Faceless Men remain faceless?” she asked quietly.

 

Gendry frowned. “No.”

 

She turned to him. He was standing just a few inches away, but when their eyes met he took a step back. “They become someone else,” she said, holding up her hands so he could see the thing that rested in them. “They put on another person’s face, a person they’ve killed, and when they’ve killed the person they were paid to kill, they put it back in the Hall of Faces, underneath the House of Black and White in Braavos.” She let him take the face. “I stole a few when I left. They taught me how to use them before they realized that I couldn’t become one of them.”

 

“Show me.”

 

Arya blinked in surprise. “What?”

 

“Show me,” Gendry repeated.

 

“Gendry—”

 

“Arya,” he cut her off, resting a hand on her shoulder. “Let me see.”

 

She took the face back from him, held her breath, and pulled it on. She felt her whole body change with it, the magic taking hold and stripping away her features. When she looked back at Gendry, it was with a different pair of eyes, and she could _feel_ the shock he put off. “I’m not Arya Stark when I’m like this,” she said. He took his hand off of her shoulder, but rather than step away, he touched her face, her hair, trying to find Arya underneath the mask. He pushed all the way into her space in his determination to bring her back, and she saw the moment it dawned on him that he didn’t have the power.

 

“I can’t believe it’s still you,” he murmured in awe.

 

Arya laughed a little, the sound foreign to both of them. “The Faceless Men couldn’t either.” She was taller like this, not enough to look him in the eye, but the tilt of her head wasn’t quite as steep. He seemed to notice as well, and _that_ was what made him draw back and frown. She removed the face and the magic in one go, watching the tension fall from his shoulders. He was hesitant this time when he came almost right up against her again, hands just barely brushing her cheeks, her neck. His fingers combed through her hair and paused there, one hand cupping the back of her head, the other holding hers between their chests. Arya relaxed even as her heart began thumping a little harder. It was warm here, in this little bubble they were in, just gazing at each other. She thought she should be afraid, or nervous, something other than calm and happy. She liked watching his brow soften and his eyes crease with a smile.

 

One of the horses snorted, making Gendry jump. The movement made him cuff Arya’s ear by accident. “Hey!” she exclaimed, swatting his arm, but she grinned all the same.

 

“Sorry,” he responded, but he didn’t sound very apologetic. “You didn’t steal any men’s faces, did you?”

 

Arya nodded in confusion. “Why?”

 

“Because I’m not letting you go in there alone,” Gendry told her.

 

Arya began putting the face away again, shaking her head. “No,” she said. “I’m going alone, and you will wait outside the castle for me to come back. I can easily slip in as a servant girl or handmaiden, but finding a place for a near-grown man will be too difficult.”

 

“It’s too dangerous,” Gendry argued. “If something goes wrong, I can’t help you from outside.”

 

“If something goes wrong, you send a raven to Jon and Daenerys and wait for orders.”

 

“They don’t even know who I am! Daenerys could have me killed if I tell her that I _might_ be the bastard son of Robert Baratheon, the man who took her father’s place on the Iron Throne!”

 

“You’re Gendry Waters,” Arya said firmly. “That is all anyone need know, until the time is right to say otherwise. And if it’s true, if you really are Robert’s son, you’re important. Stannis is dead, Renly is dead, and Robert had no trueborn sons.” She screwed her eyes shut. “You’re important even if you aren’t! When we get back to Daenerys, I’m telling her that you go where I go, and that will be the end of that. She knows what you mean to me.”

 

Gendry set his jaw stiffly. “I’m going with you.”

 

Arya sighed. “Gendry—”

 

“Unless you give a direct order telling me not to, I’m going with you,” Gendry repeated. “So if you really want me to stay outside of the Twins while you assassinate an entire house, give the order.”

 

Arya lowered her eyes. “I can’t do that.” It would change things between them, more than they already were. She didn’t want to be Lady Arya, not with him. She wanted to be just Arya, like he was just Gendry. The way they had always been. They couldn’t be Arya and Gendry if she commanded him the way she commanded power over Tormund Giantsbane and Lyanna Mormont. “Please, Gendry.”

 

“I can’t,” he murmured. “I can’t do that.”

 

They rode silently until dusk fell, but when Gendry’s shivering woke Nymeria that night, and in turn Arya, the girl moved to his other side and wrapped her arms around his waist from the back, pressing her face between his shoulder blades. Eventually, Gendry fell still and began breathing deeply, but Arya stayed awake for a long time, nose tucked into his heavy shirt and trying to figure out how she had earned his loyalty, after everything she had done.


End file.
